576 Wanna Follow Mommy To The Market?

"Would you like to visit the market, my little one?" Mother asked me out of the blue a few days after I received the hero stone.

I had rejoined the usual training with the other girls and we were in the middle of our break.

And by that, I meant Katsuki was serving me tea despite just having completed her own training as well.

I did tell her this wasn't necessary but she seemed to be aiming to be on the level of Mary as a superhuman maid so she insisted on doing it for me.

Since she saw this as part of her training, I decided to just let her do what she wants.

Ah, what was Mother asking about again?

"The market, Mommy?"

Mother nodded, "Ufufufu~ There's going to be a market happening soon in the Democratic Republic of Modgnik. Mama will be going there to shop, would you like to follow Mama?"

"Can I? Umm… Actually…"

"Ufufufu~ Everyone can come along as well, my little one. Sebastian will be bringing the others into the Dungeon soon and since your group has already gone through it, there's no need for your party to join them."

"Oh, in that case, can I come, Mommy?"

"Ufufufu~ Of course you can~ Felicia will teleport us there after lunch. You can wear your normal clothes for this trip my little one~"

Hmm? Just me? I guess I'll be following her as the 'Young Mistress of the Nilm Family' instead of just as Aster. I'm guessing the others will be following along using their persona as maids for this trip.

The rest did not seem to mind and were even quite excited to follow along as well.

"Please leave your preparations to me, Mistress," Katsuki bowed.

"Wahaha! We can practise being maids for Sister Aster like this!" Odeta chuckled.

Lisa sidled up to me while stroking my arm, "Ahhhn~ Please punish this naughty maid of yours, Mistress~ I have been a really naughty maid~"

'I will do my best as well, Aster!' Delmare scribbled in her notebook.

Surprisingly though, Tiara opted to stay behind, "I will follow the others to the Dungeon instead, Aster."

"Eh? Why?"

"I feel that my skills are still lacking and this would be an opportunity for me to train a little bit more."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes. You do not need to worry about me, I have Selene and the others to support me if I need help."

"Mnn… Alright, please be careful."

I'm guessing that she still feels that she was still several levels below Odeta and the others, which was quite evident in the difference in their stats.

I suppose that was to be expected since the others had been training their bodies long before she had started and her body was still not in sync with her memory's version of herself.

Well, I guess following me on this trip would just be Odeta, Katsuki, Delmare and Lisa.

I changed out of my maid uniform and Mary came by to present a new dress for me to wear which the girls assisted me in putting on.

Actually, it was just Katsuki helping me while the other three tried their best to follow her lead.

It was a black coloured strapless dress that stopped at my ankles with a small slit at the side to show off my leg.

Lisa was practically salivating at me and even pointed out that this dress was perfect for her to slip under and orally pleasure me without anyone seeing.

I told her that I would consider it later and she practically melted from excitement.

After finishing our preparation, we went to the village entrance where Mother was waiting with Mary, Felicia and several other full fledged maids.

Incidentally, Mother was wearing a dress that had a similar design to mine, which meant she intentionally arranged this ahead of time.

"Ara, ara~ My little one certainly looks beautiful in that dress~"

"Unn… Thank you, Mommy."

"Ufufufu~ Shall we go then?"

Felicia led the way and we returned to the stone we had used to teleport here with her ability.

Once again, she opened up a portal and all of us stepped through though this time we seemed to be sent to a different place than the last time.

Instead of the floating islands that we saw the first time, we seemed to be transported to a desolate plain instead with nothing around for miles.

Felicia stepped through the portal after us and looked around before pointing in a specific direction, "It's there… Walk…"

"Ufufufu~ I suppose we shall need to walk for a while then~" Mother giggled, letting Felicia take the lead.

All of us fell in step behind her and we started walking.

I wondered if it was a special ability of Grey Walkers to know where the portal that would lead them out was. I suppose that made sense since otherwise they would be trapped in a place like this.

"Would we be attacked by monsters?" I asked, remembering how our last trip went.

"Ara, ara? Don't worry my little one, Mama will protect you if monsters come~" She assured me, picking me up into her arms.

"Mo… Mommyyyyy… I can walk by myself," I whined.

"Ufufufu~ My little one had all grown up already~ Mama is feeling a little lonely now~"

Despite her words, she still let me down as I had asked though she now held my hand in hers.

I wanted to point out that I was most certainly not little anymore especially considering what she did after she found out about my tryst with the goddess.

We continued to walk for about ten minutes before the portal out of here was in sight.

I kept expecting monsters or some otherworldly creature to show up but we reached the portal without encountering anything else.

Well… Can't say I was disappointed.

When we stepped out of the portal, I found that we had stepped out into a clearing on the other side.

There was even a sign at the side that said 'Welcome to Johtaenilm' in bold letters.

There was a woman dressed in a fur coat with her blonde hair tied in braids seated at a counter a short distance away from us. Beyond her was a path that had various different people heading towards a walled city in the distance.

Judging by the fact that the entire place around us was fenced off save for the path in front of the woman, she must be there to check any Grey Walkers who teleport here.

Something perked up when we stepped towards her and I realised it was a Hell Wolf Alpha that had been laying at her feet.

What's a monster doing there?

"Easy girl," The woman soothed the wolf before turning to us. "Purpose of visit?"

Mary went up to her and passed a rolled parchment to her.

She received it without blinking and unfurled it to glance through its contents quickly.

Seemingly satisfied by its contents, she rolled it back up and handed it back to Mary before gesturing to the path.

"Market is already open. Your ride is also waiting outside."

She then went to pat her wolf while we stepped out on the path.

I realised the ride she was referring to was a group of wolves that another woman was watching over. Each of those wolves were at least twice as big as I was and the biggest one was five times as big.

She raised an eyebrow at our approach, "You the Nilm Family?"

Mary nodded.

She gestured to her wolfpack, "Pick a wolf then. The Amrap can take the big one."

Wait, really? We're riding them? Even though this would be my first time riding on one?

Alright then…

I noticed that Katsuki seemed to be glaring at them for some reason and the ones she glared at cowered slightly.

Seeing the monsters back away made her nod her head in satisfaction.

What happened over there?

I put that thought out of my mind and approached one of the wolves intending to choose it as my mount.

Unexpectedly, it actually backed away from me, as though it refused to let me ride on it.

Just as I thought that I smelled bad or something, another wolf that was bigger than the one I approached came up to me and turned its back, clearly volunteering itself to be my mount.

Then I realised that Katsuki was mounted on top of it.

"Please get on, Mistress."

Ok… Was there some kind of hierarchy involved between the wolves or something?

I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and mounted the wolf's back right behind Katsuki.

Waaaa~ It's so fluffy!! Fluff, fluff, fluff~

It's almost as fluffy as Katsuki's tail! And her tail is also right in front of me too!! It's double the fluff!!

"Mnng… We are moving off, Mistress," Katsuki warned, but I was too busy fluffing both the wolf and her tail to respond.

Nevertheless, I felt the wolf start bounding forward and the wind flew around me as we picked up speed.

I peeked around and saw the others also riding on their own wolves, seemingly having no trouble with riding them.

The woman was in the lead on her own wolf with the other unmounted wolves running behind us, heading straight towards the city in the distance which I guess was where the market was.

Actually… Why did we even need to come here for a market? What's so special about this one?

Oh well, who cares? Back to fluffing then! Fluff, fluff~